By using general consumption PPPs, the World Bank is, in effect, saying to the poor: "Sure, you cannot … - Thomas Pogge

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I know of no teachers so powerful and persuasive as the little army of specialists. They carry no banners, they beat no drums; but where they are men learn that bustle and push are not the equals of quiet genius and serene mastery.

Thomas Pogge

By using general consumption PPPs, the World Bank is, in effect, saying to the poor: "Sure, you cannot buy as much food as the dollar value we attribute to your income would buy in the United States. But then you can buy much more by way of services than you could buy with this PPP equivalent in the United States. " But what consolation is this? The poor do not buy services - they are services, on their luckier days.

United States, Dollars, Income, Effect, Consumption, Food

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I think one big improvement would be if we somehow made it cheaper and easier for developing countries to learn from the sad experience of some of the developed countries, and also from some of the positive experiences we have of building good transportation systems, like high-speed rail.

Country, Thinking, Positive Experiences, Experiences, Think, Experience

You may know that in India now the Tata car is becoming all the rage; you can buy it for one lakh - $2000 dollars - it's very, very cheap. So India seems to be going the route that China went a few years ago and that developing countries all over the world seem to want to follow, namely, to rely on these personal vehicles, which is just an irrational way of organizing transport.

Car, Country, Irrational, Rage, Tata, Years

We have the ability now to arrange global economic institutions so that poverty declines to a fraction of what it is now.

Poverty, Economic, Decline, Arrange, Declines, Ability

It is perfectly consistent - and also true - to say that the world poverty problem today is smaller (relative to world population) than before and yet also a much graver injustice.

Graver, Population, Relative, Smaller, Today, World

A few hundred years ago, perhaps 85 or even 90 percent of humanity lived below a standard of living that today only 40 or 45 percent fail to reach. But at that earlier time only part of this poverty could have been eradicated, and this at substantial cost not only to the pleasures of the affluent, but also to their well-being and to human culture. In our time, nearly all severe poverty could be eradicated at a cost to the affluent that is truly trivial.

Years, Humanity, Today, Reach, Affluent